News you can use
News you can use
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Gov. Steve Bullock has declared an emergency in Hill and Blaine counties and on the Rocky Boy's and Fort Belknap Indian reservations. Bullock's order includes 13 other counties in central Montana. Bullock signed an executive order Wednesday that allows state resources to be used in response. Bullock's office says Department of Military Affairs and Disaster and Emergency Services officials are coordinating with local agencies. The flooding is the result of recent rainfall that is more than some areas see in an average year....
BILLINGS (AP) — Animal-rights advocates on Wednesday asked a Montana prosecutor to pursue criminal charges in the case of a Bozeman-area animal trainer fatally mauled by a pair of 500-pound captive brown bears. Delcianna Winders with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said negligent manslaughter and criminal endangerment charges are warranted against Animals of Montana owner Troy Hyde. Benjamin Cloutier, 24, was a trainer for the company, which provides captive-bred predators and other animals for photography s...
HELENA (AP) — Former state legislator Ryan Zinke of Whitefish said Wednesday he might consider a U.S. Senate run if the Montana Republican Party's big names don't get in the race. The ex-Navy officer has been the focus of a recruitment effort by a political action committee called Afghanistan & Iraq Veterans for Congress. The group lauds his leadership in the famed SEAL Team Six and a biography that included a stint in the Montana state Senate. Interest in the race has sharpened since six-term U.S. Sen. Max Baucus a...
HELENA (AP) — Heavy rains east of the Continental Divide have dampened predictions for an early and active fire season in Montana, although the southwestern area of the state could face problems during late summer, the governor was told Monday. The forecast came as Gov. Steve Bullock kicked off wildfire awareness week with a briefing from more than a dozen state and federal land managers and fire experts. Bullock noted that half of all wildfires are caused by people. Activities around the state during the next week will h...
HELENA (AP) — A group of Republican lawmakers is launching plans for a ballot measure aimed at shedding light on so-called "dark money" in politics. The effort is led by legislators who have been billing themselves as the "Responsible Republicans" in ongoing battles with conservative foes in the GOP ranks. Some of the veteran lawmakers were targeted last year with attack mailers from anonymous groups in contentious GOP primary battles last year. State Sen. Bruce Tutvedt of Kalispell said Monday that voters deserve to know w...
HELENA — Months before a state senator and Blackfeet leader allegedly fled a sheriff's deputy who suspected him of drunken driving, a tribal judge expunged two DUI convictions from the record of the senator's brother and said the tribe shouldn't have reported them to the state. Those erased convictions by Chief Judge Allie Edwards had the effect of reducing a felony charge to a misdemeanor in the case of Shawn Augare, who had been facing his fourth DUI for a stop on Dec. 31, 2011, in Glacier County off the reservation. As a...
HELENA (AP) — Many of Montana's elected officials will receive a pay raise on July 1 based on the average salary received by people with the same jobs in five surrounding states. Lee Newspapers of Montana reports Attorney General Tim Fox will see the largest increase, of 11.3 percent, to $115,817. The pay for Gov. Steve Bullock, Lt. Gov. John Walsh and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau will remain the same. Bullock's annual salary is $108,167; Walsh's is $86,362 and Juneau's is $104,635. Secretary of State L...
HELENA — A longshot bid to override two of Gov. Steve Bullock's vetoes is gaining momentum. Bullock said Friday that all of his vetoes were needed to cut spending. The Democrat says he wanted to make sure the state had a projected surplus of at least $300 million. But he is being criticized for nixing a bill aimed at helping eastern Montana oil-boom towns, and another that increases payments to nursing homes and others who care for the elderly and disabled. It takes a two-thirds majority in each chamber to override a veto. I...
HELENA (AP) — Federal prosecutors are appealing the sentences of a former University of Montana quarterback and three other medical marijuana providers who were convicted in the largest drug-trafficking investigation in state history. The U.S. attorney's office has filed notices with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it will challenge the sentences handed down to four of the 33 marijuana providers in which prosecutors sought longer prison terms. U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter acknowledged in an Associated Press i...
BILLINGS (AP) — The Billings School District has decided to drop the "marching" part of its high school band classes. Music director Scott Corey tells The Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/ZeZtec ) the bands will continue to play at sporting events, but won't be playing on the field at halftime of football games. Corey says students usually worked up routines for two, 10-minute performances during the football season. He says teachers felt it took time away from music instruction. Band directors also found they were losing i...
HELENA — A Montana couple is appealing a judge's dismissal of their lawsuit against gun manufacturer Remington claiming a 1989 shooting that left a man paralyzed was caused by a defect in a rifle. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull ruled on April 29 that time had run out on the claim by Brad and Dianna Humphrey of Fairfield. The Humphreys filed their lawsuit last year against Remington Arms Co., Sporting Goods Properties Inc. — the name by which the gun manufacturer is now known — and E.I. DuPont de Nemours Inc., which owned...
County can't arrest tribal members on reservation MATT VOLZ,Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A state senator and Blackfeet leader who fled a traffic stop appears to have been right when he told a Glacier County sheriff's deputy the officer had no jurisdiction to arrest him. County law-enforcement officers have no jurisdiction over enrolled tribal members or their descendants within the exterior boundaries of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier County attorney Carolyn Berkram said Friday. Berkram declined to discuss...
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The editor of Montana's largest newspaper, The Billings Gazette, is leaving in mid-June after 13 years with the newspaper. "I've had 13 exhilarating years helping the best team of journalists in the region do terrific and meaningful work," Steve Prosinski said Thursday. "And now, I'm looking forward to some free time to travel, to spend time with family and friends and to explore more of our great Big Sky country." During Prosinski's time at the newspaper, the Montana Newspaper Association named the G...
KALISPELL (AP) — A misdemeanor charge of partner or family member assault filed against a deputy Flathead County attorney has been dismissed. Thane Johnson is the attorney for Kenneth "Rusty" Park. He tells The Daily Inter Lake (http://bit.ly/15oWKj1 ) the dismissal document says the state didn't believe it could prove the case in court. The charge was filed against Park after his estranged wife reported he threw a laundry basket containing several items at her, causing bruising. Park was arrested late on April 26. Johnson w...
GLENDIVE (AP) — Dawson County officials have filed four counts of elder abuse against a woman who worked at the Eastern Montana Veteran's Home in Glendive. Susan Stablefeldt was arraigned Tuesday in District Court in Glendive. She has not entered a plea. County officials said Thursday she does not yet have an attorney. Charging documents allege that between October 2012 and January 2013 Stablefeldt abused four patients. Witnesses say Stablefeldt put her knee on one man's arm to hold him down, put her hand across his mouth a...
HELENA (AP) — A state senator and Blackfeet tribal leader fled a traffic stop after telling a sheriff's deputy who smelled alcohol in his vehicle that he had no jurisdiction to arrest him, Glacier County authorities said Wednesday. A sheriff's deputy responding to a complaint of an erratic driver Sunday night pulled over state Sen. Shannon Augare on U.S. Highway 2 about nine miles west of Cut Bank, Sgt. Judd Milender said in a statement. The deputy identified Augare, 33, as a Blackfeet tribal councilman and the Democratic s...
BILLINGS (AP) — The Montana Federation of Women's Prison Employees has authorized a strike. The union represents about 50 Montana Women's Prison workers who have been without a contract since July 1, 2011. Union members include correctional officers and correctional counselor employees. The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/Wtf0lF) in a story published Friday that the proposal by members of the union passed in early December authorizing the strike. The federation and the state began mediation last summer but haven't b...
BILLINGS (AP) — Anna Whiting Sorrell has been named director of the Billings Area Indian Health Service. She succeeds longtime director Pete Conway and assumed her new duties on Monday. Sen. Jon Tester's office announced Whiting Sorrell's appointment late Wednesday. For the past four years, Whiting Sorrell has served as director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. She is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe. The Billings Gazette (http://bit.ly/WQEXwf ) reports the Billings area o...
HELENA (AP) — State wildlife biologists plan to radio collar 50 cow elk in the Missouri River Breaks and track their movements for two years as part of an effort to find out where they go during hunting season. Officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks say that elk populations have been greater than objectives set by the Missouri River Breaks Elk Working Group, which is composed of hunters, landowners and FWP. Even with issuing a "liberal" number of cow elk licenses, their numbers have only slightly decreased in r...
CROW AGENCY — Leaders of the Crow Tribe agreed Thursday to give a Wyoming mining company rights to lease an estimated 1.4 billion tons of coal beneath the tribe's land in southeastern Montana. The deal with Cloud Peak Energy involves more coal than the U.S. consumes annually, and revives stalled efforts to expand mining on the impoverished, 2.2 million-acre reservation. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File A shovel prepares to dump a load of coal into a 320-ton truck at the Black Thunder Mine in Wright, Wyo. It is aimed at tapping i...
HELENA — A Republican state senator launched a long-shot bid Thursday for a constitutional amendment that would require prior judicial experience for Montana Supreme Court justices. The proposal would require approval from 100 of 150 lawmakers before it could be sent to the voters, a tough hurdle to clear even if all 90 Republicans in the Legislature back it. But Fred Thomas, of Stevensville, said he thinks the measure has a "50-50" chance. As written, the measure would require candidates to have experience as a District C...
HELENA — With Google Earth on their computer screens and cups of coffee cooling on the table, a five-person commission spent five August days in the Capitol discussing, drafting and redrawing lines that would determine the makeup of legislative districts for the next decade. The committee's proposal is currently awaiting legislators' input. It reflects a state population that increased by 10 percent between 2000 and 2010. But not every part of Montana experienced the boom. Many rural counties' populations declined, forcing c...
AP Photo/Matt Gouras State Sen. Tom Facey, D-Missoula, right, tells the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that it should remove an obsolete state law that criminalized gay sex before it was struck down by the courts. The Senate Judiciary panel listened to testimony on a proposal that would remove an obsolete state law tha criminalized gay sex before it was struck down by the courts. HELENA (AP) — Gay rights advocates said Monday they hope the Legislature will finally repeal an obsolete state law that c...
HELENA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester returned Monday to the place where he got his political start, urging state lawmakers to focus on bipartisan solutions and telling them the biggest challenge on the federal level will be balancing the budget. Tester is fresh off a bruising and expensive — but ultimately victorious — re-election campaign over Republican challenger Denny Rehberg. He said both sides need to put the sometimes bitter election process behind them and find common ground. Tester built on the emerging theme of coope...
BILLINGS (AP) — A standoff ended with the death of a handcuffed burglary suspect who hit a Montana police officer with his own patrol car before the officer opened fire, authorities said. AP Photo/The Billings Gazette, James Woodcock SWAT team members stand guard as a man is given CPR after a standoff with police and the SWAT team in Billings. The standoff ended with the death of a handcuffed burglary suspect who hit a Montana police officer with his own patrol car before the officer opened fire. The 29-year-old man was in th...
